Tag: Silk Road 3.0 – Tag

It seems as though the darknet market Silk Road 3.0 is not yet done with. It was reported recently that the third version of Silk Road is making an effort to improve its acceptance and popularity through a society charity drive. As part of the charity drive scheduled to be held from June 8, 2016 onwards, Silk Road 3.0 would donate $5 from each and every sale on the site to Last Door Recovery Society.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Silk Road 3.0 is BACK ONLINE and open for business. The team did a massive security overhaul on the site to try and make it more secure and anonymous.

It is a fact that Silk Road 3.0 is a darknet site that mostly deals with illicit products and services, but it seems they have a big heart when it comes to giving donation to charity. The site’s admins revealed their intention to hold a society charity drive starting June 8 in a press releasesent earlier this month.

They said that the marketplace would contribute $5 from the proceeds of each sale to Last Door Recovery Society even if the sale amount is less than $5. This means that they will have to shell out their own money in order to keep up their commitment.However, with the revenues they can generatefrom the site’s operation, they are not likely to go bankrupt.

The Last Door Recovery Society based at Vancouver, Canada, is a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center. The non-profit organization runs two core treatment programs. The center focuseson treating both young (Last Door Youth Program) and adult (Last Door Adult Program) as well asoffers adjunct rehab treatment programs for partners and families. They need to be supported financially so that they can continue their good work.

Silk Road 3.0 is a marketplace in the dark web for selling mostly illegal goods as well as services, including drugs. However, the siteencourages harm reduction as well as responsible use of substances that are capable of inducing mind altering effects. There is a section of the forum for harm reduction. It includes drug profiles, drug addiction questionnaire, and other more useful information. For those who may have health issue with substance, they encourage them to stop use and getappropriate medical help at once.

This might seem to be rather strange as far as some people are concerned as it seems they would profit less. However, it looks as though the admins are focusing on ensuring privacy and security of the users of the site for now rather than driving profits.

Further, it appears that the society charity drive scheduled to begin from June 8 is not likely to be the first and only charity to be organized by Silk Road 3.0. The admins of the platform are also urging users of the site to regularly send donations in bitcoins to charities.It is definitely a worthyeffort on the part of Silk Road 3.0 to organize a society charity drive like this;however, it is rather questionable to some.

All said and done, it remains to be seen whether Silk Road 3.0 will be able to drive revenues through this initiative or not.

Reportedly, the Crypto Market is made by the very same developer team that also runs the Silk Road 3.0. As you may already know, Silk Road 3.0 has previously been offline due to some maintenance issues; it was subjected to some DDoS attacks, so the developers decided to improve the overall security. The same set of security measures was applied to the Crypto Market a few weeks ago.

Previously, if you try to visit the official SR 3.0 URL (http://reloadedudjtjvxr.onion), you will come across the following statement:

Silk Road 3.0: Offline

Silk Road 3.0 down for upgrades. While it is down we recommend our other market, Crypto Market. Crypto Market is a secure market run by the same team as Silk Road 3.0.

You can still visit the forum, though; and there you will notice that it’s become the joint forum of both markets, Crypto and Silk Road 3.0 markets.

It’s easy to deduce that the SR 3.0 and the Crypto Market are designed by the same person; but perhaps for different target groups?!

For example, they both have dark backgrounds; navigation is smooth and simple with categories arranged a bit differently. The products’ prices are clearly labeled, as well as the vendors’ reputation on the site.

Both markets have invested in security measures recently and they both have reliable and responsive support systems, according to the user community.

New Generation of Security on Dark Web

New Crypto Market developing team has made a huge effort in securing their market from DDoS attacks, phishing attacks and other attacks that regularly happen on the Deep Web for the purpose of ruining competition or stealing bitcoins.

The anti-phishing method is somewhat new on Dark Net markets. Both Crypto Market and SR 3.0 are constantly reminding their users to check whether they have the proper URL. Also, if you try to make a Crypto Market account, you will be prompted to enter the adequate 10 alpha-numeric part of the URL that stands between the crypto- prefix and the .onion- suffix.

Obviously, the developers have worked hard to improve design and security of the Crypto Market and it’s good news that they are now implementing the same for the SR 3.0.

For example, if you try to send a message to any user, you will have the option to encrypt the message on your own by using your chosen PGP client, or alternatively you will also be able to send automated encrypted messages via a built-in encryption app in case you don’t have or use any specific PGP software. Thanks to Crypto Market developers, security of the Dark Net markets is brought to a new level.

Another novelty implemented by the Crypto Market developing team is a Newbie Guide. Lots of others Dark Net Markets are very confusing for the newcomers; but not the Crypto Market. You simply pick the Newbie Guide from a dropdown menu while you are making an account, and once you make your account you will get a set of the most important instructions for getting around on the market.

Silk Roads of the Old Generation

An interesting fact is that the three Silk Road-named markets were not made by the same developing team.

First and the most successful of them was Silk Road, created by Ross Ulbricht back in 2011. The market evolved into the largest online drug selling community and the amount of money that went through it is estimated to be $1.2 billion in total, more than $79.8 million from commissions!

The idea behind the Silk Road was Ross Ulbricht’s and it was to clean the streets from drug-related crime and transfer it to the web, which seemed as a much safer environment than dark alleys of ghettos where drugs are usually sold. Unlike other Dark Net markets, Ulbricht’s SR didn’t sell child pornography, weapons and other stuff that might cause harm to a third party; he was categorical at this. The main products were drugs, which can harm only the person buying. Ideally…

However, it didn’t last too long and in 2012, the FBI and the National Security both started investigating mail packages that contained drugs and were leading to the Dark Net market called Silk Road. It took them a whole year to make the connection between the infamous Dread Pirate Roberts, the main admin of the Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht; but once Ulbricht had been arrested, the market was seized by the FBI and all its vendors and customers lost their precious market and bitcoins that were left in escrows.

Almost instantly, just a few days after the arrest, Silk Road 2.0 appeared. Its design was practically the same as its predecessor’s, with certain security improvements. It was believed that the Dread Pirate Roberts’ account wasn’t managed by a single person; but by several people; allegedly, one of the managers of the Dread Pirate Robert’s account created this 2.0 version of the website. Not surprisingly, SR 2.0 didn’t have as nearly as much success as the pioneer Silk Road, so vendors and buyers spontaneously moved to the newly made markets whose name didn’t make so much noise in the ears of the authorities.

SR 2.0 was seized in the Operation Onymous, together with many other Dark Net markets. Blake Benthall, who allegedly ran the market, was arrested in San Francisco.

Almost immediately after the fall of Silk Road 2.0, Silk Road 3.0 was created. It was obvious from the beginning that the SR 3.0 was entirely new; a market with an old and infamous name has not only been built and designed from scratch, but it leans on new philosophy viewpoint – security before everything else. It has an elegant, dark background with (somewhat) creepy mask on the landing page – symbolizing anonymity and security above all.

Our predictions are that the bright and prosperous future lies before the Crypto Market and its brother market, Silk Road 3.0, that’s currently undergoing some serious security makeover. It remains yet to see…

If you have tried visiting the Silk Road 3.0 website recently (the official URL http://reloadedudjtjvxr.onion) you might have found the site – offline.

Now, apparently Silk Road 3.0 is run by the same admins that run Crypto Market, so if you are not afraid to experiment a little, maybe this can be a suitable alternative for you. Crypto Market is growing rapidly and already is the 4th biggest darknet market with over 20000 listings and 12500 listings of drugs. It is known that the Crypto Market has also been offline every now and then recently because of a DDos attack, this is usually because the owner of another market is pissed off that there is a new market rapidly rising and stealing business. The developers are trying to apply new security measures and other upgrades to eliminate the threat which will only make it better.

Just to recap, Silk Road is the best known name for a darknet market; it’s almost like – a rock star on the darknet! The original, first Silk Road market was founded by Ross Ulbricht, later arrested and convicted to two lifetime sentences in prison.

Immediately after the fall of the market and Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road 2.0 emerged. 2.0 wasn’t in the media as much as its predecessor but actually did more business than the original, and pretty soon was seized by the officials; its founder was arrested as well in the Operation Onymous.

However, the saga didn’t end here and the 3.0 version of the market was born. It had a brand new design and it was much more secure than the previous version of this popular drug market.

At the same time new speculations started. Some claimed that the market was a scam and that they are trying to fool inexperienced buyers and perform an exit scam. Some users (perhaps those veteran users that have seen several marketplaces go down for this or that reason, such as Silk Road, Agora, Evolution, and so on… and are used to these dynamic changes on the Dark Web) are totally blasé about this; while others agree with the exit scam being the possible cause.

Whatever the cause for this downtime is and whether we should trust the speculations, it is still just an object of debates on the internet, until the admins release the official explanation. And despite many allegations, many have remained faithful to the Silk Road brand and still hope that their chosen marketplace will be up and running in no time.

There is nothing strange in these sudden disappearances of darknet markets. It can happen anytime and for any reason. Every time a darknet market disappears, immediately new speculations spring out – people evaluating whether it’s an exit scam or a DDoS attack or whether the market was seized by the authorities. Even bigger fuss is made when one of the markets bearing the Silk Road brand name goes missing.

After the pioneer marketplace Silk Road, it happened to its successor, a very popular market Agora. The admins planned to work on improving the security of its website, and promised to be online as soon as they resolve some well-known issues with Tor network. They officially announced their break and even offered enough time for their customers to withdraw their funds from the website. However, their long awaited return hasn’t happened yet; instead, many other markets followed and joined them in their disappearance from the face of the Darknet.

In the case of Silk Road 3.0, everything is still possible; and it feels reasonable to hope it’s just down for maintenance.

It seems that hard work has finally paid off for AlphaBay Market. Their reputation is growing bigger on daily basis and it starting to look as if they are aiming to be the next Silk Road. Which won’t be an easy task, for sure.

Silk Road was the first and the most popular market among the Dark Web markets. They have laid the foundations for secure, anonymous trading and still no market has ever been able to gain trust and popularity that they had with their customers and vendors.

It has been two years since the Silk Road was brought down, and its founder Ross Ulbricht, also known by pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested. Everything has changed for the Dark Web markets since then. A number of new markets popped out like mushrooms after the rain. Some of them good, some of them bad; and some – really, really bad performing exit scams, phishing, stealing other people’s money.

Apparently, Silk Road cared about its customers and vendors. They were the first to implement escrow trade and bitcoin as valid trade currency. They were categorically against child pornography, assassination or hacking services. Ross Ulbricht explained this on his trial, “The Silk Road initially started as a libertarian economic experiment, a project motivated by idealism and a willingness to let people live as they choose.” Now, everybody is trying to adopt that philosophy and recreate what Silk Road had done before the FBI shut down the market.

Just a couple of days after the original market fell, Silk Road 2.0 resurrected from the dead by remaining staff from the original project. It looked identically, but had some new security features.

It didn’t stay long in the business, however – they were seized in 2014 together with 26 other Dark Web markets. The ones that survived, among others were Evolution and Agora and both markets aspired to overtake the throne and become the biggest market.

One definitely more than the other – after a while Evolution performed an exit scam leaving hundreds of customers short of their bitcoins. So, Agora became the leading Dark Web market and they were doing quite well… until they decided to shut down at one point. In their official statement they explained that they’ve found certain security flaws in the Tor Network system which they are working to fix.

Again, new Dark Web markets emerged striving to become the new Silk Road. One of them even is using the very name of the legendary market – Silk Road 3.0. Very soon it was marked as fake market by the DeepDotWeb, a team of enthusiasts reporting about the current situation on the Dark Web.

However, despite this warning, it seems that Silk Road 3.0 marketplace is steadily gaining in popularity. At first users were not sure whether it was just an FBI hoax or a legitimate marketplace. But, according to Fezzik, a current employee at Silk Road 3.0, it counts up to 100,000 users at the moment.

So it is reasonable to believe that this market, a survivor of Operation Onymous, along with other contenders, is steadily building its way to the top.

Current elite markets are definitely AlphaBay and Abraxas Market, competing head to head. But according to a recent statement from AlphaBay team in which they announced that they’ve officially reached 200,000 users; it seems they have greater chance to become the #1 market:

“We reached 200,000 users on the Marketplace just now. On behalf of the entire AlphaBay Staff, we thank you for your ongoing support, faith & effort to shape AlphaBay as it is today – a top-grade black market!

With the help of our community, we will continue to do our best to run AlphaBay for many milestones ahead in a transparent way, accompanied by strong security practices & blazing-fast marketplace speed.

Sincerely Thank You,

AlphaBay Staff”

This is pretty big and they are growing even bigger in numbers.AlphaBay Market has a different approach – their PR campaign is professionally conducted and their main goal is to create a strong and loyal community. In an interview for the DeepDotWeb, the founder of the market said that “without a community, the marketplace would not exist, so the community holds the true power. We implemented multisig, shared account access, and many other features that users requested. We want to have every imaginable possible feature to be the #1 market.”

During the same interview, he also noted how proud they are “of the high level of security & strict security procedures we have here at AlphaBay. We would like to assure all of our users (both vendors & buyers) that their security, privacy and anonymity rank first place in our priorities list.”

So far they have been doing a pretty great job in their new role of being considered as the new Silk Road. But, let’s just wait and see how it turns out. To read more about AlphaBay, visit here http://alphabaymarket.com/.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Since the Silk Road 2.0 bust by the feds a few other Darknet Markets have fallen. The best Darknet Market available is the Agora Marketplace. It has the best reputation and a bigger selection of goods than Silk Road 2.0.

When Silk Road 3.0 was launched in November of last year, it was met with a lot of skepticism. People did have enough reason to be wary. Its predecessor, Silkroad 2.0, was shuttered down and its alleged operator, Blake Benthall, was arrested. This happened even when the admins promised to undertake more precautionary measures in their running of the site.

Yet as things go on the Internet, when you shut one site down, a dozen similar ones pop up soon after. There are several darknet marketplaces that enjoyed a surge of traffic after Silkroad shut down, but none have truly replicated the success that the original one had.

Enter Silkroad 3.0. Originally Diabolus Market, the site was renamed as the Silk Road 3.0 in order to capitalize on the Silkroad name which was enjoying huge media traction since Ross Ulbricht’s arrest.

Its launch was marred with doubts – was it just a honeypot setup by the FBI? But more than half a year later, these doubts seem to have vanished. Silkroad 3.0 is still in existence, with more than 100,000 users buying and selling all sorts of illicit items.

But aren’t the Silk Road 3.0 administrators afraid of getting caught (especially considering how their predecessors ended up in jail)? Fezzik, a Silkroad 3.0 employee, gave an interview that details how he and other Silkroad 3.0 employees and admins manage to get by everyday with the fear of arrest looming over their heads.

Fezzik, who is a father of two kids, acknowledges the dangers of his job and even admits that he is haunted by it every day. But instead of being afraid, this just pushes him and the team to look for more ways to improve operational security on Silkroad 3.0. He also believes that other darknet marketplaces will continue to surge in popularity even after the Ulbricht fiasco.

It seems like Silk Road 3.0 just won’t be going anywhere soon with people like Fezzik on the team.

If you want to visit Silk Road 2.0 then you will want to know that it was shut down by the feds on 5th November 2014 and the alleged operator “Defcon” has been arrested. The best alternative is Agora Marketplace, it actually has more listings than Silk Road 2.0. Silk Road 3.0 is ALREADY live and there will be more info about it here soon.

Silk Road 2.0 was previously shut down by the FBI together with other online drug markets. Several people were also arrested with the shutdown which was a really blow to the drug industry. However, Silk Road 3.0 is already in the market predicting that other Silkroads will follow. According to Kate Gibbs writing on Gizmodo Australia, there are three things in life you can count to happen: death, taxes and people buying and selling drugs online. This does not come as a surprise considering the success that was with Silkroad 2.0. The business insider was the first to report news about its release which was later shared on Reddit.

Gizmodo contains the address for the new crypto market but one will not be able to access it without using the Tor software. Just like Silkroad 2.0 and other illegal websites online, Silk Road 3.0won’t work unless one is using Tor. This is a Tor hidden service.

Silk Road 3.0 is not a new market as most may have thinking. It already existed in the market and has just been re-branded to cater for the demand that was left when Silkroad 2.0 was shut down. The service was initially called Diabolus market which only specialized with cannabis. According to Daily Dot reports, the market was peaceful and simple but run professionally by experts on development. There are unverified claims that they are currently working with some members of Silkroad 2.0. This might be difficult to confirm as there are no ways one van confirm this.

One thing for sure is that the service is less sophisticated compared to the previous one leading to doubts if it will stay. Only time will tell if this is a public stunt or just something that will stay for long in the market. This marketplace is not decentralized which makes one doubt if most drug leader could use it as they prefer decentralized marketplaces.

Disclaimer

This website is just a blog that delivers the latest news on the Silk Road and it's latest versions of the Darknet Markets with the same name. We are in no way connected with these or any other Darknet Marketplaces. The information here is just intended for informational use and is not meant to be used for advice in any way. We do not endorse the use of illegal drugs and do not encourage any illegal activities in any way.